


I'll Hold the Pain 'till it is Gone

by ajremix



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-14
Updated: 2018-07-14
Packaged: 2019-06-10 04:36:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15283785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ajremix/pseuds/ajremix
Summary: There was little else to do so you prayed to the Stormlord and you had hoped that your friends would find you somehow. You prayed and you hoped but you hadn't actually expected them to.SPOILERSfor episode 26.





	I'll Hold the Pain 'till it is Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Moxy Fruvous's I Will Hold On. First work for this fandom, it's just been on my mind all day because Yasha and Molly's friendship is one of the best things about the new campaign.

In the two days you've spent cramped in this cage, body aching as you try to accommodate Fjord and Jester as best your large frame can, you prayed. There was little else to do so you prayed to the Stormlord and you had hoped that your friends would find you somehow. You prayed and you hoped but you hadn't actually  _expected_  them to and as the caravan grinds to a halt and voices cry out- some not familiar, some achingly so -you wonder if you're dreaming this.  
  
The three of you crane your necks, trying to catch sight of the Nein but, from your position at the very end of the caravan, all you can see is Caleb hiding in the bushes some distance away. Though the voices around you are loud, the other prisoners are shuffling around, making muffled sounds, preventing you from understanding what's going on. So you focus on Caleb, trying to glean what's happening from his reactions.  
  
The fight seems to start well enough- as well as any of the Nein's battles have been -but it doesn't take too long before Caleb suddenly clambers into a half-crouch and freezes, like a rabbit preparing to bolt from a predator. His eyes are focused on something beyond your sight, not even caring about the fighter charging right at him and then you hear, as loud as day, Nott telling Beau to run, just before she comes into view, running full tilt toward Caleb. Beside you, Fjord goes still. He knows, just as you do, that something is very, very wrong.  
  
For a tense moment there's nothing. Then the fighter, towering over Nott and Caleb, resentfully backs down and Beau walks stiffly into view. Walking  _away_. Right behind her is one of your captors, leading a dwarf with a hand on their shoulder.  
  
The cart jolts and starts moving and Jester yells out around the gag, trying to be heard. The man raises his glaive, preparing to execute the dwarf in front of your friends before simply kicking them to the ground instead. He turns back, patting out a flame lingering on his armor and Fjord suddenly surges to one side with a muffled exclamation.  
  
For a moment, even though there's no mistaking that jacket or those swords, you don't recognize the heap as Molly. When you do you wonder why the others are huddled together, so far away. Why none of them are trying to help him.  
  
And it hits you just as Jester screams, throwing herself against the bars as if she can break out. As if the three of you haven't nearly broken your shoulders trying that all this day and the last. It's because he's dead.  
  
You stare. All you can do is stare at the unnatural stillness of Molly's body, always effervescent in your memory, and at the blood caking the ground beneath him and it hurts to breath. It hurts every time your heart beats and you wonder, for the first time, if the Stormlord could truly be this cruel. To bring your friends here, believing they'd rescue you, only to have your best friend die meters away. And you couldn't do anything. You weren't even allowed to witness his final moments, only watch the lonely corpse on the side of the road getting dust kicked up over him, becoming smaller and smaller.  
  
Jester keeps ramming at the cage despite the tight confines, screaming Molly's name over and over until she starts to choke on her tear-soaked gag. From your position you can't see Fjord's expression but you see his head moving, subtly, as if tracking Molly's body, like he's unable or unwilling to believe he's dead, searching desperately for any sign of movement. But you watch the man as he makes his way back to the caravan and you know, from the careless, smug flicker of his eyes towards Molly's body and the blood you can see coating his glaive even from his distance, that he was the one that ended Molly's life.  
  
His eyes seem to lock on yours through the veil for just a moment and you vow, on the part of you that seeps blackness and otherwordly power, that you will end his.


End file.
